reviews

Tom Maclear (from the album Gods and Ghosts)Tom Maclear couldn’t be happier, and it shows on album track “Movin’ Back to Texas”. Tom spells it out as T-E-X-A-S on the track from his recent release, Gods and Ghosts. The haunting in the album title mirrors Tom Maclear’s day gig for the past thirty years as the spirit whispering in the ears of hit songs, creating tracks as a ghostwriter in the Country, Hot/AC, and Alternative music genres and songwriting behind the velvet curtain of the industry from Nashville and beyond. Tom Maclear is the marquee name on Gods and Ghosts, opening the album on a bounce as he opens his heart for “That Wonderful Love”, spreading the joy he feels around the world, suggesting that the emotion is the gift that keeps on giving.Recording and producing Gods and Ghosts, Tom Maclear adds the musical backing on the album, filling out in the instrumentation with a suitcase full of six-strings with his work on slide, lead and rhythm guitar, mandolin, dobro, and bass. The songs on Gods and Ghosts all bear Tom Maclear’s imprint with the exception of “Simple Song of Freedom”, a track from Bobby Darin that is an equal to the message from Tom in his tunes. Gods and Ghosts was recorded over four years at MEG Studios in Los Angeles, California and showcases the man quietly serving many of the radio hits on the dial for the past three decades. Gods and Ghosts catches a western breeze as it cruises under a “Purple Sky”, picks out notes to scatter over the path taken for “Lessons in Your Life”, and steers into “One More Rodeo” as Tom Maclear slides on the sad times in “County Prison Blues”, quietly offers solace in “The Harder It Falls”, and shares opinions of our times in the title track. Listen and buy the music of Tom Maclear from AMAZON or iTunes